Spartan is a leading designer engineer and manufacturer of customheavy-duty chassis. The Company's chassis consist of a frame assemblyengine transmission electrical systems running gear (wheels tiresaxles suspension and brakes) and for some applications a cab. TheCompany's customers are original equipment manufacturers (``OEMs``) whocomplete their vehicle product by mounting the body or apparatus on aSpartan chassis. Spartan Motors Inc. has a market cap of $169.1 million; its shares were traded at around $5.14 with a P/E ratio of 7.9 and P/S ratio of 0.2. The dividend yield of Spartan Motors Inc. stocks is 1.9%. Spartan Motors Inc. had an annual average earning growth of 18% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated Spartan Motors Inc. the business predictability rank of 3-star.

Highlight of Business Operations:

Net earnings decreased $13.9 million ($0.43 per diluted share) from $14.7 million ($0.45 per diluted share) in 2008 to $0.8 million ($0.02 per diluted share) in 2009 as a result of the factors discussed above. Excluding restructuring charges taken in the quarter, adjusted earnings were $0.04 per diluted share.

At September 30, 2009, the Company had $157.5 million in backlog, including SPA backlog, compared with a September 30, 2008 backlog of $183.8 million, which did not include SPA backlog. The decrease in backlog is mainly attributed to Chassis which saw backlog decrease $21.0 million, primarily as a result of the previously described government contracts included in specialty vehicle sales that ended in 2008. Excluding the change in specialty vehicles and SPA, the Chassis backlog increased $13.7 million year-over-year. The EVTeam backlog had a slight decrease of $.4 million. Intercompany eliminations in the backlog increased $4.9 million related to chassis sales to the EVTeam for the same time period. The Company anticipates filling its current backlog orders by May 2010.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2009, consolidated sales decreased $368.6 million (52.8%) to $329.5 million, from $698.1 million in the first nine months of 2008. This decrease in sales is mainly due to a decrease in sales of $369.9 million (56.9%) at Chassis. The decrease in sales at Chassis was primarily due to the reduction of other product sales of $325.5 million (68.2%), coupled with a decrease in motorhome sales of $67.6 million (80.3%), for the nine months ended September 30, 2009 compared to nine months ended September 30, 2008. The decline in sales was partially offset by an increase in fire truck chassis sales of $23.2 million (26.0%) over the nine months ended September 2008. Changes to the 2010 engine emission standards resulted in increased demand and thus sales for fire truck chassis.

Net earnings decreased by $27.7 million ($0.84 per diluted share) to $12.2 million ($0.37 per diluted share) in the first nine months of 2009 from $39.9 million ($1.21 per diluted share) for the same period of 2008 as a result of the factors discussed above. Excluding restructuring charges taken in the first nine months of 2009, adjusted earnings were $0.39 per diluted share.

Uses of cash for investing activities for the nine-months ended September 30, 2009 consisted of $5.0 million related to purchases of property, plant and equipment (PP&E), net of proceeds from sales of PP&E, while the use of $3.2 million for financing activities was primarily for dividends paid of $2.6 million. See the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows contained in Item 1 of this Form 10-Q for further information regarding the increase in cash and cash equivalents from $13.7 million at December 31, 2008 to $36.3 million at September 30, 2009.

Shareholders equity increased $11.3 million, from $170.6 million as of December 31, 2008 to $181.9 million as of September 30, 2009. The increase was driven by $12.2 million in net income and $2.1 million from compensation related to restricted stock and direct stock grants. These were partially offset by $2.6 million paid in dividends and $0.4 million used to repurchase stock.

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